The Other Eaton
by depressedintrovert
Summary: What if Four had a sister? What happens when she follows her brother to Dauntless? What happens when she meets our favourite Dauntless leader? Eric/OC Four/ Tris Eric-slightly OOC rated T for mentions of abuse
1. Chapter 1

Delilah Eaton sat in her plain grey room, on her grey bed looking at the grey walls and she didn't know what to do or think. The house was silent, for there was no one in but herself, her mother had died when she was young and her brother had transferred to Dauntless four years ago. Her father Marcus Eaton had been out at a council meeting as he was the Abnegation leader and all. Though she was certain he was probably drunk in some pub in the factionless parts of the city, and there in lied her problem, he could be home anytime now and he would probably be drunk and it was always worse when he was drunk. See, Marcus had been abusing his children ever since their mother died eleven years ago, he blamed his children for her death, though they had never understood why, she had died during childbirth of their sibling that would have been eleven today. Then Delilah realised, it was exactly eleven years since her mother's death, and Marcus would most definitely be drunk and in a fouler mood than he was usually in. It was moments like this when Delilah wanted to just crawl up into a ball and die, for four years she had been flinching at any sound of a floor board creaking or air flowing through a slightly open window and while yes it had been like this for eleven years up until four years ago Tobias had always been the one to take the brunt of Marcus' anger but the he left and there was no one to protect her but herself. She always knew Tobias was going to transfer as soon as he was able to, and that was the plan for her too, she didn't hate her brother for leaving her but she didn't like the fact that she was with Marcus alone, especially given when he found out Tobias transferred he went absolutely berserk and as usual took it out on her, claiming it was her fault he left.

Suddenly she heard a loud CRASH! She couldn't move, she sat rooted to the spot as she heard her father walking towards her room, his shoes thumping against the wooden floorboards. "You!" Marcus roared in her face, "I've been looking for you, it's all your fault your mother died, it's your fault Tobias left and now I'm going to make you pay" he shouts. Before Delilah can even register what's about to happen, he makes a swift punch at her ribs and then at her face, pummelling her with his fists until she on the floor coughing up blood. "Scream you bitch" Marcus shouted at her, but she shook her head, she refused to give him the pleasure of hearing her scream. This only made him more angry and he started to kick her in the head she brought her hands up to protect her head from his feet but that made her ribs and stomach vulnerable, so seizing his chance Marcus gave several quick kicks to her ribs. He repeated this over and over, for what felt like eternity but in reality was probably only a couple of minutes, until he got bored and gave up, it was clear she wasn't going to satisfy him so with one final kick to the face he stomped back down the corridor to the living room only to pass out on the sofa, leaving Delilah unconscious on her bedroom floor, her blood staining the light grey carpet.

By the time Delilah came to she saw it was seven in the morning, she had to be out of the house by eight if she was going to make it to the school on time, as it was on hours walk from the Abnegation housing to the main school hall. That was where the choosing ceremony was being held, yes today was the day of the choosing ceremony, the day she got out of here, the day she joined Tobias and best of all the day she got away from Marcus. She walked slowly to the shower her ribs aching from the beating she took last night. She turned on the taps and let the water run as she inspected the damage in the mirror, she really didn't care about running the water bill, as she knew Marcus would not be in the house as he would be at the school getting things ready for the ceremony and she would not be coming back here ever again. As she looked in the mirror at her bruises she could see that she had a very black eye and her face was cut all over the place, she looked down the mirror at her ribs they were various shades of purple and she was sure he had broken some. She had to admit that she had gotten of better than she usually would have especially considering it was the anniversary of her mother's death and Tobias' leaving. She had expected much worse. Delilah quickly got in the shower not wanting to be late for the ceremony, once she was done she went to the cabinet just above the sink and took out the foundation, which she used to cover up as much of the bruising and cuts on her face as she could, but despite all her efforts she did not have enough foundation to cover all the cuts and just hoped nobody noticed and thought she got them during the Dauntless initiation.

Once Delilah had finished covering as much as she could, she placed the empty bottle back in the cabinet. She made her way to the kitchen, but once she got there she realised she didn't have much of an appetite, she was too nervous, she couldn't help but think Marcus was going to find some way of forcing her to stay. Deciding she couldn't eat, she look at the clock on the wall, it was quarter to eight, and not wanting to be around Marcus any longer than would be necessary she wandered down the corridor which led to her and Tobias' old rooms, but instead of going into her room, she walked into Tobias', for some reason she was almost tempted not to go in, it was the first time she had stepped in his room since he left, but she gathered herself, she had to go in she couldn't bear to leave without looking in his wardrobe. She composed herself and walked in, although rather timidly, and walked over to the grey wooden wardrobe that sat in the far corner of the room. She wasn't if she would find what she was looking for as she wasn't certain whether or not had Tobias had taken it when he left. She wouldn't have been angry if he had as it wasn't hers it was actually their mothers and was the only thing they had to remind them of her, and of happier times.

It took her while, and she was about to give up after searching for over ten minutes when spotted that part of the cupboard floor was a shade darker, intrigued she tried to lift one of the panels and was surprised when she found that it gave way with ease, she was even more pleasantly surprised when she saw what she was looking for, it was an average paperback book, there was no title to the book, the cover was just a deep rich purple. She was over the moon when she saw it and wasn't surprised Tobias had left it, after all he had got away, she would still have to suffer from Marcus for another for years. Overjoyed that she found the book, Delilah rushed into her room and ripped open her chest of drawers searching for a good enough bag, that wouldn't look out of place but was sturdy enough to hold the book without her having to fear it falling out. After a quick rummage through one of the drawers she found the bag she was looking for, she quickly shoved it in the bag and made sure the bag was tightly closed, by the time she got back to the kitchen she saw it was eight, so with one final look around at her home, she sighed, it wasn't because she was going to miss her childhood, good fucking riddance to it I her opinion, no she was sighing case it felt like the weight on her shoulders had lifted slightly, she was so close to being free.

It was approaching nine by the time Delilah got to the front of the school, and she saw a load of Erudite and Candor getting of the bus which had passed her on her way. Apart from the usual jeers she got from the Candor teens sat at the back of the bus, her walk to the school had been rather uneventful, she hadn't bothered to do anything for the factionless wandering around as she had seen other abnegation doing, she didn't see the point she wasn't coming back so why should she bother. Once she reached the hall Delilah quietly stood behind the line of teens choosing today, she was the last person in the queue as she would be the last person to be called because her surname began with E and they went in reverse alphabetical order, also Abnegation would be called choose last as it was their turn to host the ceremony this year and whichever faction was hosting went last out of curtesy or some bullshit like that. Delilah knew it was going to be a while before her name was called, but she had never expected it to take as long as it did, it had taken four hours before they had gotten to Abnegation choosing.

Up till now Delilah hadn't been paying much attention to the ceremony she was to apprehensive about getting away from Marcus and to her brother at Dauntless, but now she was watching with unwavering attention, a boy from Abnegation by the name of Caleb Prior had just transferred to Erudite, this was what had first caught her attention as nobody had ever transferred from Abnegation, in fact Tobias had been the first Abnegation to transfer in close to fifty years, that's why it had caused as much uproar as it did, everyone thought it was preposterous that somebody from Abnegation would ever transfer. But what made Delilah curiosity peak even more was the fact that Caleb's sister Beatrice Prior was to choose next, they weren't best of friends but they were quite close, especially after Tobias left, and Delilah was certain she was going to transfer and wasn't at all surprised when she chose Dauntless as Delilah remembered back to the countless times he caught her staring after the Dauntless running about the city, when she was supposed to be helping the factionless. At the thought, Delilah couldn't help but laugh, they were so similar, they both had older brothers who were very protective of them and neither of them fit in Abnegation and the would both be transferring to Dauntless, yet they had completely different reasons for wanting to leave.

Once Marcus had gotten the crowd to settle down, clearly Abnegation was none too happy about two transfers let alone them being related. Delilah took this as an opportunity to look over at Andrew and Natalie Prior, she wasn't at all surprised to see that they held no upset or hatred for their children, in fact Delilah could have sworn they almost proud of their children's choices. Then again they were probably the most accepting and understanding people in Abnegation and they probably knew before they got here that their children were not going to be staying and them seemed perfectly OK with this.

Delilah was about to fall asleep, the ceremony had been going on for nearly six hours given there had been major disruption after Caleb and Beatrice's choices, suddenly she heard her name being called by her father, she flinched violently at the memories of her father shouting her name before bursting into her room and beating her for doing something wrong. Composing herself quickly, Delilah looked round thankful nobody seemed to have notice her behaviour, she stood up slowly and made away down to her father, and didn't break his gaze. When she reached the bowls in the middle of the room Marcus handed her the knife, and for a brief second she wondered what would happen if she just straight up plunged the blade into her father's chest, but this thought was pushed to the back of her mind, she knew she needed to get to Dauntless, to her brother, and she wouldn't be able to do that if in prison. She looked at each of the bowls with a fleeting glance before returning her stare to her father and without breaking eye contact brought the blade to her hand and thrust her hand over the bowl filled with hot coals and couldn't help but laugh at the murderous glare her father was giving her as she heard her blood sizzle as it landed on the coals.

 **I know its probably not great its only my second attempt at a fanfic and the first one got no views so please review if you like it and i will update immediately. Any feedback is wanted**


	2. Chapter 2

For a brief moment Delilah felt like she was flying, but that bliss feeling was short-lived as made contact with the gravel roof. Just as Delilah had managed to stand, she heard a loud she her a high pitch scream, she looked round to see where the noise had come from, what she saw had terrified she rushed over to a girl that was clinging to the edge of the building, Delilah rushes over try and help the girl and sees Beatrice running over to do the same, it must be the Abnegation in us, Delilah thought to herself as she saw nobody else go to try help the girl. The two Abnegation reached the girl in no time they both reached for one of the girl's arms, but as Delilah's fingers were about to close round the girls wrist, the girl's hand slipped from the ledge she had been barely holding onto, "Nooooo!", Delilah shouted as the girl fell, helpless she watched the girl plummet to the concrete pavement, horrified as she saw the body on the ground, limbs contorted in ways which shouldn't be possible, no matter how dead someone might be. Shaken Delilah and Beatrice turn back and follow the others to a hole in the middle of the roof. A man is standing on the ledge, he is in no way scared of the fact he could fall in at any moment and is acting as if he is merely standing in the middle of a pavement. The man introduces himself as Eric one of the leaders of Dauntless, he is wearing all black, with a long sleeved jacket with dark purple panels, his boots so polished Delilah could've sworn she would be able to see her reflection in them. He looked at the crowd surveying the initiates figuring which ones probably wouldn't make it through initiation. He has a very bored look on his face it was clear he had done this many times before. His hair is short and a dirty blonde, the piercing above his eyebrow glistening in the sunlight.

"If you want to enter dauntless, this is the way in" Eric says glancing down at the hole in the roof, "and if you don't have the guts to jump, then… you don't belong in Dauntless". As usual there was the barrage of questions about how dauntless must be mad and what was at the bottom, Eric just stood there he really couldn't be bothered with listening to all the whining so he told them "I guess you'll find out… or you won't. So who's first" Eric asks as calmly as if he was asking the group if they wanted ice cream.

There is a long silence and nobody volunteers, just as Eric expected. He is about to pick someone when he hears someone say "me", he looks round to see the source of the noise and to say he was surprised was an understatement, it was the stiff from Abnegation, but he wasn't going to let anyone see his surprise so he just stood there watching. He clearly wasn't the only one surprised as Delilah swivelled round stupidly fast and looked incredulously at Beatrice as it had been her who had volunteered. Delilah watched as Beatrice made her way over to the ledge, she took her time getting onto the ledge and when she was up she just stood there looking down at the seemingly endless hole, worried for her friend, Delilah's eyes flickered over towards Eric's who caught her gaze, he didn't say anything he just stared her down, a small smirk on his face as if daring her to look away. Delilah kept eye contact for as long as she could but his intense glare was getting unbearable and she quickly diverted her gaze back to her Beatrice was still on the ledge, she was still on the ledge and Delilah was sure Eric was getting impatient, Delilah thoughts were confirmed when Eric barks at Beatrice sharply, "Today initiate!", Delilah sees Beatrice practically jump out of her skin and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Eric smirk triumphantly, he clearly gets a kick out of scaring people, Delilah thought. Next thing she knows Beatrice is no longer on the ledge and everyone is rushing to jump next, clearly none of them like the thought of being beaten by a 'stiff', as Abnegation were often referred to as. Delilah just stood back and watched the rest of them fight to jump next, it wasn't that she was scared of jumping, not at all, she just wasn't bothered that Beatrice had jumped first, after all they were both Abnegation and Delilah liked to think they were friends.

Delilah watched as the last person jumped from the ledge, following the others down into the dark abyss. Soon it was just her and Eric left on the roof, she looked over to him, half expecting him to say something about her clearly not being as brave as Beatrice. To her surprise he doesn't, he just looks at her studying her, refusing to look away Delilah stares right back at him, he stands there watching her for a while, before laughing to himself saying "two stiffs huh?", and with that he motions for Delilah to go ahead and jump, she does so but not before she turns around so she is facing him, her back to the hole, once again he doesn't say a word, he merely smirks at her in mild amusement. Deciding to could play at whatever game he is play, even though she doesn't even know for certain what that game is, Delilah doesn't say anything either and jumps silently, never screaming once.

She lands heavily in the net and barely has time to register she has landed when she feels the net being pulled down at one end, she blindly grabs at the hand offered to her and is pulled up out of the net. It's when she finally feels her feet hit solid ground again when she looks up at the person who helped off the net, once she looks up it takes her only a few seconds to realise who the guy is. Before she can say anything to him, he asks her in a very bored tone, "name?" it's clear he hasn't looked to see who he is talking to and she takes a while to answer, and before Delilah can say her name, he speaks again, "You can pick another one, but only this once, so pick a good one", Delilah thinks quickly, she decides on using her middle name, as it was what Tobias always called her by and she wanted to not be associated with Marcus any longer than she has to, "Parker" she says angrily, she can't believe he hasn't bothered to see who see was, he knew she would be choosing this year and that she would be following him to Dauntless. Upon hearing the name, the man spins round and stares at her open mouthed, he's finally looked at her and recognises who she is, but he shortly gets over his shock and announces Delilah new name as Parker. He then goes on to introduce himself as Four. Parker is infuriated he hasn't even said as much as a hello to her, she starts to think he's ashamed by her. She cannot control her anger any longer and before Four has time to continue his introductions, Parker has marched upon and she barely realises what she's about to do when her fist connects with his jaw. She has to get out her anger and just continues hitting him and screaming at him about how he left her, he doesn't fight back and she knows why, he would never lay a hand on her out of fear of turning out like Marcus so he just stands there trying to defend himself but refusing to hit her. She barely registers the large pair of arms pulling her off of her brother and dragging her down a corridor away from the rest of the initiates and her brother. Parker doesn't try to resist, but she continues to shout at her brother all the time she being moved away.

 **I don't know if anybody actually reads this story but thank you if you are reading it and here's another chapter for you. please review or private message me if you have any ideas for the story, i do have a bit of a plan of where this story is going but any help will be happily received. i have written five chapter so far so if you want anymore please review.**

 **cheers.**


	3. Chapter 3

Parker's POV

"Hey!" I hear the person behind me shout, I immediately shut up as I realise its Eric who has dragged me away from my brother, "you going to tell me why you've only been here five minutes and you've already hit an instructor" Eric barks at me, I flinch at the tone of his voice and I feel like I'm right back in Abnegation, I cannot say anything so I just try to concentrate on returning my breathing to normal, but I can't and I start to hyperventilate again. "calm down he" barks at me though this time his tone is much gentler, I just shake my head and I hear him sigh heavily, next thing I know he has grabbed my hand and placed it on his chest, I know what he's doing and I try to match his breathing rate. Once I'm finally calm he lets go of my hand and I drop it from his chest.

I don't know when but sometime during my outburst he has brought me down to what I imagine is the dormitories, he pushes me through the door and I see that the rest of the initiates are already here and have chosen their beds, when Eric leaves I walk over to the bed in the corner closest to the door. I can see some of the others are staring at me but I just ignore them, I've learnt to just ignore the pitiful looks I would get in Abnegation when the first accusations against Marcus came out from Erudite. I look around the room deciding I need to find my brother, I see him standing next to the door and he catches my stare, after a few seconds he tilts his head in the direction of the door, I stand following out the door so we can finally talk without the other giving us weird stares. As soon as I'm out the door I see him try to apologize for leaving but I stop him, not being able to deal with the guilt I say, "Don't, you've got nothing to apologize for, we both knew you had to leave, it was the only way you could have gotten away" I see him about to start to argue but I continue before he can "and don't say you could have stayed, because you couldn't have, if you had stayed you would have still made me transfer and you would have been stuck there forever", he doesn't say anything once I finish, but I can see he doesn't agree with what I say, he just sighs and tells me it's time for us to go to dinner, so he takes me and the rest of the initiates down to the mess hall. I'm sat next to Christina, a Candor girl with Four opposite me and Tris, as she was now called, was sat on his right. The rest of the initiates filled up the rest of the table. I sit looking suspiciously at the round piece of meat on my plate, Tobias tells me it's just beef but it doesn't make it look any more appetizing, I can see Tris shares my sentiment and watches as she pushes her food round her plate. I'm just about to try some of the food when I notice Tobias has straightened and is sat taller, confused as the sudden change behaviour I look behind me to where he is looking and spot Eric heading towards our table. I notice the rest of the hall has quietened dramatically as he approaches us, it is clear the young leader holds a lot of power over the rest of the faction, obviously age doesn't affect rank in Dauntless, unlike Abnegation, and I shiver slightly at the thought of my old faction, I'm glad to see Four is concentrating too much on Eric to notice, I don't want him worrying about me.

Eric finally reaches our table and stares at each one of us, he grabs my arm and pulls me out of my seat, "Dick-" I start to curse, but before I can get the words out of my mouth he pulls me back and I fall onto his lap. He wraps an arm around my waist -I can't help but notice how defined his muscles are-, so that when I try to stand up he merely pushes me back down so that I'm stuck sat on his lap. He turns his attention back to Tobias after staring at me briefly, "so Four" he asks my brother, "aren't you going to introduce me". I know for a fact he already knows who I am given my outburst earlier today, I think to myself, it's clear he is only doing this to get at Tobias as he probably already knows were related, one look across at my brother tells me he is think the same thing. I watch my brother tense up even more, though I can't think how that's even possible seeing as he got impossible tense when Eric pulled me onto his lap. "This is Christina, Tris and Deli- I mean Parker" Tobias replies through gritted teeth. "Tut tut tut, I would've thought you would know your initiates names Four" Eric says, once again the comment is aimed at the fact he slipped up on my which of course he knows. Four doesn't say anything and just scowls as Eric. "So two stiffs huh?" Eric continues and I suddenly remember him saying the exact same thing when it was just us left on the roof this morning, "Dauntless are getting quite a collection, I wonder how long you last" I refuse to give him the satisfaction of answering him, it's clear he's trying to get a rise out of one us with his insult, I have a feeling he's particularly interested in mine and Tobias' response as he hasn't so much as look over at Tris (or Christina).

Still feeling uncomfortable about sitting a strangers lap, I look back down at my plate and start to contemplate whether or not to try this strange food, then out of nowhere Eric reaches for the burger that's on my plate and eats it in a couple of bites. Shocked and annoyed I'm about to complain when he starts talking to my brother again. "Max's been looking for you" Eric starts

"Really I hadn't noticed" my brother replies clearly knowing where the conversation was heading couldn't be bothered to talk about it.

"Yes, he's been trying to arrange a meeting with you, but you never show, he wants me to find out why"

"You can tell him I'm happy with the position I currently hold"

"So he's trying to offer you a job?"

"That's what it looks like" my brother says with an air of finality, I hear Eric sigh heavily and he clearly knows he isn't going to get any more out of my brother, he stands up abruptly and I nearly fall, but Eric's strong arms stop me before I hit the floor, once my feet are firmly on the ground I mutter some sort of thanks and watch as he walks back down the way he came and walk out the door at the far end of the mess hall. I sit back down and slump into my seat, I look around me and I realise Tris and Christina had left, my confusion clearly showed as Tobias told me they left a few minutes after Eric sat down. I'm relieved to hear that none of the other initiates just witnessed what had just happened, not that I actually knew what that was, it was bad enough having the rest of Dauntless members staring at me and Tobias, at least I wouldn't have to interact with any of them during my initiation and I hope they will forget what happened by the time it ends. I look back at my brother, he's slouched into his seat, "you ok?" I ask him, he doesn't look up at me and just nods his head. I don't push him any further he obviously doesn't want to talk about it, so I tart to stand up, it's late and I need to get back to the dorm, just as I push myself up from the table when I hear Tobias speak, "he knows" he tells me.

"Knows what?" I ask him confused.

"Everything, that you're my sister, about Marcus"

I start to get very annoyed, "you told him?" I accuse my brother feeling betrayed.

"What no! He's a leader of Dauntless, he knows everyone's real names, not just the ones they give at the net. And as for the Marcus situation, he's from Erudite, he's seen the articles and as much as we may hate each other, I've got to give it to him, he surprisingly observational. Besides your outburst this morning hardly helped in keeping quiet about Marcus did it?"

"So you're saying it's my fault then?" I ask him hurt, "I was left with him for four years. Four years Tobias!" I'm practically shouting by now and I don't wait for his response and storm out making my way towards the dorms, with tears threatening to spill.

I burst through the dormitory door, and I find everybody staring at me. Not being able to take it any longer and turn around and walk right back out the door, I walk towards the training area and make sure nobody's there before I walk straight to the back of the room towards one of the orange punching bags, I just keep thinking back to the years in Abnegation after Tobias left, leaving me defenceless against Marcus' rage, he was worse than he had ever been to Tobias after he left, and I dint have the advantage of height against him like Tobias did. I don't know when but I some point I've started to cry and my hands are bleeding from hitting the bag for so long, but I don't care, if anything I deserve it I tell myself. I'm so involved with my own anger and upset that I don't notice the big double doors of the room opening and I also don't notice somebody approaching me.

I'm still pounding away at the bag, tears streaming down my face when I feel a pair of arms grab mine from behind just as I'm about to throw another punch at the bag. I don't bother to look who it is, I don't stop struggling against whoever is trying to stop me, I've had enough and I'm too angry but I know whoever it is won't let go, so I swing round, my fist connecting with the person's face. "Stop!" I hear the person shout and I realise its Eric but I don't care and continue to try to land a hit but he has my wrists pinned down to my sides and I can't get free no matter how hard I fight. I finally give up too tired to keep fighting, I'm still crying even more so now. I don't know what I was expecting to happen but I certainly didn't expect him to pull me towards him. I lean my head against his chest, and he just stands there not saying anything, we both stand there for a few minutes until I seem to have my breathing under control. Once I'm breathing normally Eric leads me over to one of the wooden benches lined up against the wall. He pushes me so I'm now sitting down, and he lifts my hands to inspect the damage, I look at my hands also, they are badly bruised and covered in blood from the split skin on my knuckles. I hear him say something about going to fetch a med box and then I hear the doors close. I am too tired to move anywhere, so I just lie down on the bench, and I fall asleep promptly.

 **So... what did you think? just wanted to let you know that majority of the story will be from Parker/Delilah's perspective, with the occasional point of view from another character. Please review if you can, even if it is just to say you are enjoying the story as it really gives e the motivation to continue to write. once again i cannot thank you enough for even viewing the story i never expected this much of a response thank you all so much.**

 **~DepressedIntrovert~**


	4. Chapter 4

Eric's POV

I quietly slip out of the room to go fetch the med box, so that I can fix her hands, which she's badly damaged from all that punching. I don't what came over me when I hugged her, but I suppose it's because I saw that she was hurting, and she actually had an excuse it wasn't just someone upset from being dumped or an initiate missing their mummies, she was properly hurting and I know she had been for the most of her life. Of course, I know who she was and who Marcus was, I also know that Four was her brother and even though I despise him I can't imagine how hard it would have been for him to leave his sister with that monster for four years. I make my way into the initiate's dorm and find that all of them are asleep which doesn't surprise me it's well past ten, their supposed 'bedtime'.

Grabbing the box that is hanging on the wall by the door, I make my way back to the training room. Despite only being gone a few minutes, I return to find Parker fast asleep on the bench where I left her. Once I'm by the bench I can't help but feel sorry for her, she looks so peaceful, it is the polar opposite to what she was like when I found her in here. Deciding it probably best to clean the cuts on her hands as quickly as possible, I take one her hands and wipe carefully at the cuts not wanting do wake her, once the first hand is all bandaged up I move onto the second one, after I'm finished I lift her up and carry her out of the room and towards the initiate dorm, luckily her bed is in the far corner close to the door so I don't have to worry about trying not to wake the other initiates. As I place her down on the bed I notice how light she is and my stomach twists at the thought of Marcus starving her, I can't even begin to fathom how a father could do that to his children, his own flesh and blood. I decide not to think about it anymore, and make my way up to my apartment, I can only hope she doesn't mention anything tomorrow, I really don't have the patience to deal with Four.

 **Sorry, the chapter is so short but, I will update again today with a longer chapter. What did you think of the POV, I don't plan to do many in his POV as I find it difficult writing from the male perspective but if the want for it is big enough I might do more chapters this way.**

 **~DepressedIntrovert~**


	5. Chapter 5

Parker's POV

I awake before anyone else, which is surprising given the time I fell asleep last night. I feel an ache in my hands and I look down to see them wrapped in bandages, then the events of last night come flooding back to me, I groan I really don't want to see Tobias today I'm still angry at him for our conversation with him last night, and I even more so don't want to have to explain my hands to him, which I realise Eric must have bandaged up once I had fallen asleep. I look at the clock on the desk next to my bed, the red numbers glare back at me aggressively and I see it is only four in the morning and by a quick calculation I've only slept for four hours but I'm no longer tired and I cannot get back to sleep not matter how hard I try. I work out I've got two hours before Tobias comes down here and wakes everybody up and I really don't want to be in here when he does that given I plan to avoid him as much as possible. I know logically that it is probably the worst idea in the world especially as he is my instructor but I can't bring myself to talk to him, as I know deep down that the comments made last night were far from one-sided but still. I decide not to have a shower as I don't really feel like unwrapping the bandages on my hands, stuck for something to do I slip out of the dorm and head towards the training room knowing nobody is going to be in there. Although I decided to come in here I don't know what I was planning to do once I got here, suddenly I remember mother's book I brought with me I rush back to my bed and slide open my drawer next to my bed as quietly as possible so as not to wake the others, I grab the book and go back to the training room.

Once I've made sure nobody is in there I go to the same bench as last night, tucked away in the far corner of the room. I settle myself on the bench and start to read the first page. I don't notice how long I've been there for until I hear the door open. I quickly hide the book as I do not know who it is and I do know we weren't actually allowed to bring anything from another faction and anything we did bring was supposed to be burned the first night we came here along with our old faction's clothes. Once I'm sure the book is well hidden I turn to see who it was that came in, I'm surprised to see Eric standing there, an amused smirk on his face. "What?" question him, sounding much harsher than I attended, he doesn't say anything in reply and just continues his way to the punching bag next to me. I notice it's the same one I had been punching at last night, but I'm sure there's nothing behind his choice, it's probably because it's the furthers one away from the door, I mean after all that was the reason I chose it last night. He starts to pound it with his fists, the sound of his hands hitting the leather echoing throughout the sparse room. I watch him work at the bag punching it furiously, I'm captivated by the power behind his punches, and the punching bag is swinging much more than it had when I punched it, in fact, it had hardly moved when I had been hitting it. I can't help but give him a once over, his ridiculously defined muscles contracting as he attacks the bright orange bag. I hadn't even realised I was staring until I heard Eric speak, "She something you like initiate" I flush embarrassed that he caught me looking. He doesn't say anything more as he makes his way out of the room leaving me on my one once again. I'm surprised when he return not ten minutes later, but now he is not drenched in sweat. He looks over at me when he enters, "seeing as you are up you might as well help me set up for the training today" he calls over to me. I don't say anything I only nod as he jerks his head in the direction of the door and I follow him out, completely forgetting about the book.

I follow him silently through another set of double doors and up some stairs until we come to a bolted metal door, he unlocks it and motions with his arm for me to go ahead of him, I door as I'm told and push the door open. I notice it leads out onto a gravel roof, similar to the one we jumped from the train to, but much smaller. Looking around me I see ten targets lined up in a row, over at the over end there is a table on which there is an assortment of guns ranging from shotguns to pistols to sniper rifles. "You going to help me load all these shotguns," Eric tells me proceeds to pick up one of the shotguns and shows me how to load it. Once he is sure I know what I'm doing he tells me to start on the rest, and I do so.

I just finish loading the final gun when Eric informs me ten past six. I make my way down to the initiate dorm, wait for Tris to get ready before heading down to the mess hall for breakfast. Thankfully Tobias had gone by the time I got back to the dorm. My luck, however, ended once we got to breakfast and I saw Tobias sat there eating, I couldn't bear to explain my hands to him especially not in front of other Dauntless members, I'd already had a barrage of questions from Christina and Tris, which I refused to answer, and I had enough of the looks the other initiates had given me. I decided to skip breakfast luckily I didn't have to explain where I was going to Tris and Christina as they had already gone ahead of me, clearly not wanting to talk to me, I didn't blame them, I had been rather short with them but it made my departure easier so it was beneficial towards me in the end. Not really sure on where to go, I just let my feet carry me, and I find myself heading towards the training area, not that I have many other options. I'm too consumed in my thoughts to notice where I'm going and I slam into something very hard, I stopped so abruptly that I lost my balance and was headed to land on the floor, but once again I'm stopped just in time, by Eric, who I had accidentally smashed into. I hear him grunt as he reaches for my arm to stop me falling. "Look where you're going initiate," he tells me sharply before storming off, probably to breakfast. Rather embarrassed that I've nearly fallen to the floor twice and I haven't even been here twelve hours, I make my way to where I was headed before I crashed into Eric.

I'm relieved to find nobody is in here, I guess everybody is at breakfast, which I probably should've gone to seeing as I hadn't eaten since the evening of the day I took my aptitude test, which had been over twenty four hours ago. Not really sure what to do I go to sit down on the bench I was on this morning when I suddenly remember the book I left, I search frantically for the book, I can't believe I'd been so careless. After a good hour of searching a resign myself to the fact that I lost the only thing of our mother's either of us had. I sat on the bench wondering how on earth I was going to tell Tobias especially as I had been avoiding him since yesterday evening, which I'm sure he's noticed. I hear the set of double doors swing open for the third time today, I don't bother to look up to see who came in as it would either be Eric or Tobias and I really don't care to talk to either of them so I continue looking at the floor. Soon a pair of black boots come into my line of sight and the fact that they are so polished that I can see my reflection in them tells me they belong to Eric, I'm relieved that it is not my brother and I look up slowly, once we've made eye contact he starts to speak, "You missed breakfast"

"I wasn't hungry," I tell him, which to be perfectly honest wasn't a complete lie, I had lost my appetite from all the anger and hurt I had been feeling.

"You need to eat", he tells me with a bit more force than before, and I can tell he is getting impatient but I don't care and I tell him so.

"I told you I'm not hungry," I tell him hoping he gets the picture, and my prayers are answered when he just sighs.

"Have it your way then, but you're not going to be able to avoid your brother for much longer, he is your instructor you realise?" he tells me as if I was stupid.

"I know that, but it's not going to stop me, now can you just leave me alone"

"Fine, we're training you how to shoot this morning so if you want to avoid talking to your brother for as long as possible, you might as well come up with me," he tells me, not waiting for a response he heads towards the doors. I decide that following him was probably the best idea if I want to not talking to Tobias, no matter how surprised I am at the idea of Eric helping me, I walk out the doors and find him waiting for me. I don't get how he could have known I was going to follow him but I don't mention anything as we ascend the stairs towards the bolted metal door that leads onto the roof. Once we are outside I notice it has gotten colder since we were out here earlier on. Neither of us say anything and I just watch him as he places a gun at each station, which each faces a target, but rather than an ordinary bullseye target, it is shaped like a human body and is the same bright orange as the punching bags in the training room. It isn't long until I hear the rest of the initiates stomping up the stairs like a heard of baby elephants, and when the door opens I meet my brother, it is clear by his face that he is surprised I'm up here with Eric, but I look away before he can say anything to me. Once he's made sure that all of us are on the roof Tobias calls us over so he can explain what to do and I make sure I'm at the back of the group, as far away from him as possible.

I'm sure I can see hurt in his eyes for a second but that quickly replaced by a hard stare when he goes onto explain how to correctly hold the gun, he then proceeds to shoot the target without even looking at it, and there are loud gasps when we realise each of the three shots hit dead centre. Tobias then orders us to line up at a station and I immediately go towards the one at the back and pick up the gun, I had expected it to feel uncomfortable in my hands but I felt surprisingly at ease with the pistol in my hands. I watch as Eric walks back up the line, from talking to my brother which I guess means we are about to be allowed to start and weirdly I'm quite eager to. I take my time making sure I've got the correct stance and I'm holding the gun the right way when I hear a loud yawn from somewhere to the left of me, so I turn to see that it is Peter "But what… ", he yawns through his words, "What does firing a gun have to do with bravery?" I shake my head subconsciously questioning how stupid he could be, when quick as a flash Tobias has the barrel of his gun against his head and is clicking the bullet in place. I almost laugh when I see the look of absolute fear on Peter's face, a yawn stuck in his mouth.

"Wake. Up," My brother snaps. "You are holding a loaded gun, you idiot. Act like it." I watch intensely as he lowers the gun. Once the immediate threat is gone, Peter's green eyes harden. I'm surprised he can stop himself from responding, after speaking his mind all his life in Candor, but he does, his cheeks red. "And to answer your question…" Tobias continues, "You are far less likely to shit your pants and cry for your mother if you're prepared to defend yourself" and with that he turned on his heel and walked to the opposite end of the row from where Eric was standing.

I don't blame him for being tired it was very early after all but what he did after that meant he deserved what Tobias gave him, in my eyes, even if I was a little shocked by my brother's actions. Eric then signals for us to start shooting, we do so immediately and as I pull my finger down on the trigger I can help the exhilarating feeling I get when I shoot the bullet, the feeling gets better when I look to see the bullet hit right in the middle of the targets head, I then fire again, this time, I aim for where the mannequin's heart would be and I am thrilled to see I hit right in the middle of its chest.

"Impressive" I hear someone say behind me and I look round to that it's Eric, "you sure you've never shot a gun before," he asks me. I shake my head no, I think it might run in the family, but I don't know how seeing as my parents were both abnegation, I quickly look away from Eric as I start to think of my mother again, I don't want to be seen as weak, I wipe at my eyes quickly hoping nobody notices the tears forming, but I know both Eric and my brother do. When I look back at Eric it looks as though he wants to tell me something but, he just tells me to go back to shooting.

 **Here you go, another chapter. See, I do keep my promises and this was probably the longest chapter so far, so I hope you enjoyed it. And once again, a huge thank you to those who have reviewed, I know i say this a lot but it really does mean a lot to me.**

 **~DepressedIntrovert~**


	6. Chapter 6

Parker's POV

By the time we stop for a break two hours later, nearly everyone has managed to hit the targets, but I'm still the only person who has managed to hit anywhere near the place we were aiming for, most people were hitting the very edges. I'm feeling very proud of myself that I hadn't missed a single time and all my bullets were in the target's chest or the middle of its head. Eric tells us we have a twenty minute break to do what we like whilst they set up the training room but we must be in there in exactly twenty minutes and anybody who's not will have to face the consequences, and motions to the door signaling we can leave.

Unfortunately for me, avoiding my brother meant I was at the back of the line, which in turn meant I would still be on the roof with Tobias after everybody had gone, which would give him ample opportunity to talk to me, which he does, and I have nowhere to hide. I'm not even at the door when he starts to talk, "please talk to me Parker" he says almost pleading, I can't look at him, I just feel too guilty so I look at my hands, and it is just my luck that this makes him notice them. "What happened to your hands?" he asks me, but once again I refuse to tell him, and I know he's getting impatient, but he still waits for me to answer his question. We are both stood there for what feels like forever, but is probably less than a minute when I hear Tobias sigh angrily, "You know what Parker all this avoidance is really quite babyish" he tells me, scolding me almost, and I can feel my blood start to boil, "you need to stop being so immature and grow up" I can see the instant regret in his eyes when he says that, but something inside me just snaps, "Grow up? You are telling me to grow up?" I ask him angrier than ever, "has you being here for two years mad you forget everything that Marcus did to us, did you just forget that I still had to deal with him for four more years, or did you just think now you were out you didn't have to worry anymore about me? I've had no childhood remember or did you forget that too, I was only five when mother died, I hardly remember anything other than beatings. But you, you had nine years of a childhood, you got to spend nine years with mother. And yeah you got beaten more than yeah me, you took the beatings when they were aimed at me, but he got worse when you left, much, much, worse. I'm not exaggerating there would always be days when he wouldn't hit one of us, but after you left…. he hit me every day, as soon as I got up in the morning and as soon as he got home. I spent the nights unconscious more than I did sleeping. And you have the audacity to tell me to grow up?" I've started to cry now but I don't care and I don't try to hide it, I want him to see how much my life has been destroyed by Marcus, how much he has hurt me. I storm out not being able to look at him I'm so angry. I march into the training room, not giving a damn that Eric was in there and stupidly decide to talk out my frustration out on the wall next to me.

Too angry to notice or care about the pain I repeatedly hit my right hand into the wall, I continue pulling my arm back as far as possible so I can hit the wall harder, but as I bring my arm back to punch at the wall again someone catches it, so I cannot move it. I know it is Eric as he was the only one in here and it would be at least another fifteen minutes before any of the other initiates came in. I turn round trying to get my elbow free, tears still streaming down my face, but it is no use, Eric has a vice like grip on my elbow, when I meet his stare I see red and use my free left hand to start hitting him as hard as I can wherever I can land a punch.

Unfortunately for me it seems Eric is pure muscle and hitting him with an already injured hand it felt as bad as hitting the concrete wall. Also unfortunately for me he is a Dauntless leader, which obviously means he is one of the best at Dauntless, which also meant his reflexes are insanely quick and he has a hold of my other arm, purposely avoiding my hands, within a few punches. "You need to stop", he tells me sternly, but I notice his voice isn't as harsh as it usually is when talking to people, especially us initiates. "All you are achieving is making your injuries worse", I know he's right especially when I look down to see that the bandages that are covering my hands from my earlier outburst are now drenched in blood, so much so that blood is dripping onto the floor at an alarming rate. I suddenly start to feel faint, not from the sight of blood, no I have seen way too much of my blood when Marcus beat me, no, I was feeling faint because I was slowly coming down from my anger fuelled adrenaline rush and I could know feel the pain from my hands and it was excruciatingly painful. The pain is way too much to handle, it feels worse than Marcus would beat me, my vision has gone blurry, and I notice everything is getting darker and Eric is talking but I can't hear anything he is saying, and then I let the darkness consume me. I sure I hear somebody swearing but I can't place the voice it is so distant and I as fall unconscious I am vaguely aware of the feeling of being lifted and carried somewhere.

 **Sorry it has been so long since the last update, i just didnt have much energy to write plus i had to go back to school this week. Anyway i hope you liked it, and i will try to get a structured time for when i upload but i cannot promise anything, as this is a really important year for me at school. Once again, thank you to anyone who has reviewed, favourited and put this story on their alert list i really appreciate it.**


	7. Chapter 7

Parker's POV

I wake up on some bed that is really uncomfortable and my head is pounding. I open my eyes but I shut them quickly for the lights in the room are blindingly bright. After a few seconds I try to open my eyes again, but slowly this time so my eyes can get used to the light. Once I am used to the brightness of the lights, I attempt to look around me but I am on my back so I cannot see much, but from what I can see I must be in the Dauntless hospital. The hospital bed I am lying on is made purely out of metal, with just a thin mattress for me to lie on, which explains why it is so uncomfortable. I try to sit up more in the bed, not liking the fact I am stuck facing upward and can't really see anything, but as I put pressure on my hands to lift myself up I am suddenly reminded why I'm in here in the first place and groan at the pain that shoots through my arms, my right arm in particular, and I fall back on to my back. I soon see a nurse rush up to my bed, shaking her head and holding a paper cup and bottle of water, "you don't want to do that dear" she tells me sympathetically, "you've broken your right wrist , and have badly injured your left hand, so you should put as little pressure on your wrist as possible", she then gives me the cup of pills, which I put pour into the mouth before taking the bottle of water from her and swallowing the painkillers. She takes the empty bottle and cup from me and goes to inform one of my instructors that I was awake.

About five minutes the nurse returns, and I am flooded with relief that it is Eric with her and not my brother. She tells me that I am free to leave but if I feel any sort of pain I should come back immediately, she then orders Eric that in no way should I be fighting for at least one week. Eric doesn't say anything, he just nods his head stiffly. He helps me out of the hospital bed, and directs me out of the infirmary, we walk for a bit until I realise we are not headed towards the training room, and when we approach the chasm I realise we are headed to the mess hall, and because I have no clue what time it is I don't know if Tobias is in there, Eric seems to notice my apprehension and tells me "Don't worry, your brother is not in there, he is still with the other initiates in the training hall", I am about to ask him why he isn't just taking me there if they are still training but before I can say anything he answers my unanswered question, "we are going to the mess hall because you haven't eaten anything since you got here and by looks of it possibly longer than that". As we approach the Pit I see that it is absolutely packed, it is as if half of Dauntless is there, it really is the centre of life at Dauntless. I pause again, not seeing how I am going to get through all these people without whacking my arm on something or someone. However, this dilemma is quickly solved when Eric places his hand on the small of my back, steering me through the dense crowd and somehow I miraculously make it through.

We make our way into the mess hall, and go over to the food which is laid out buffet-style. Before I can even think about how I'm going to hold the tray let alone serve my food, I notice has gotten two trays and is piling food onto both of them, by the time he is finished serving the food onto the two trays, it looks as though there is enough food to feed about eight people on each tray, not that I am complaining, he was right I haven't eaten since I got here, I haven't eaten for at least 3 days. Eric carries both trays over to a nearby table before placing them down and sitting in front of one. I sit in the seat next to him, my cast making it difficult. I am about to start eating when I realise I have no clue how I am going to do so, using my right hand, which happens to be my dominant side, is out of the question as the black cast covering my arm prevents me from really moving my fingers in any way that is useful. But thankfully the cast only covers my lower arm and doesn't go over my elbow so I do have some mobility with my arm but not much. I decide only option is to attempt to eat with my left hand. It takes me several tries I manage to do so without making myself look an absolute fool and spilling it on me but to say it was difficult is a major understatement. After a while I start to get the hang of it, and I get more confident with eating using my left hand, but it is just my luck that just when I start to get used to the feeling of eating with my non-dominant hand I spill a spoonful of peas down myself. As I wipe the peas onto the floor I notice Eric is quietly laughing at me "Hey!" I say with mock hurt, "it is not easy you know, and I can't exactly use my right arm can I", I continue, waving the cast in front of his face. He doesn't say anything back, he just shakes his head at me, an amused smirk on his face. I refuse to eat anymore, I am completely full and I don't want to have any more food spill on me, so I wait patiently for Eric to finish his food. It suddenly downs on me I have no idea how long I was out for nor do I know what time it is now. I turn to Eric and am about to ask him how long I was out for, but before I can even open mouth he answers my question, "To answer your question it is nearly quarter past two, you were out for four hours", I look at him shocked, "how did you know what I was going to ask?" Once again he doesn't reply he just winks at me, yet another smirk on his face. I turn away from him and grumble for a bit until he is finished eating all his food. "Come on", he tells me a little while later, "I need to talk to your brother, and he will want to see you are still alive", he stands and I do too but much slower given my injuries. We leave the mess hall and get into the corridor, making our way towards the training room. I can't help but notice Eric's hand returns to my back as we walk, despite there being far fewer people around than before we ate.

After a short walk we arrive at the training room, Eric holds the door open for me so I go through, having to duck under his arm slightly, and go sit on the nearest bench avoiding my brother's gaze as much as possible. Thankfully the others are too busy practicing their punches to notice I've come in. I hear Eric and Tobias start to talk, they seem to be talking about whether the others are ready to start the fights and from what a can pick up they are not. Eric and Tobias keep on talking but I cannot hear anything and I feel like they have purposely lowered their voices, especially since they both keep glancing at me. The two continue to talk for a few minutes before Eric comes over towards me. "Seeing as this lot aren't going to be ready to start fighting anytime soon, and you aren't allowed to do anything to worsen your wrist, we are going to go for the run this lot went on when you were in the hospital. After all, we can't have you sitting round here not doing anything now can we?" I readily agree, anything to get away from Tobias' guilty glances, but even then, I have always loved to run, unfortunately I didn't get to do it often because of Marcus. I follow him out the room, and we almost get there without any interruptions but just as I reach the door, I hear somebody call out in protest, I see that it is Brent, "Wait why does she get special treatment, how come we have to be stuck in here practicing some dumb shit" I freeze, not liking all the attention on me, I see Tobias open his mouth to say something but Eric beats him to it, "Are you questioning a me initiate" Eric yells at Brent.

"Yeah I am", Brent responds, I shake my head in disbelief, I can't quite believe he is stupid enough to question a Dauntless leader, let alone Eric, who everyone knows is the most ruthless leader of them all , when he hasn't even passed initiation.

Eric doesn't say anything for a while, he just stands looking at Brent, "Okay", he says after a while, "Everybody follow me!", the rest of them walk over to where me and Eric, we all follow him, I notice that he has Brent next to him, but I also notice that he isn't saying anything which cannot be a good thing as ruthless people tend to be even worse when quiet. We haven't walked very far when I hear the rushing of water and I realise we are heading towards the Chasm, when we arrive Eric and Brent are basically side by side, then before I can even blink Eric is holding onto the barrier of the bridge with one hand and onto the Brent's wrist with the other, who is now hanging over the Chasm. I can hardly watch as Brent clutches to the ledge with one hand. "Grab the rail" Eric tells Brent, "...or don't" and he lets go of his arm. Brent barely manages to grab the ledge in time. "You have three options, hang there and I will forget your insolence… fall and die… or give up, but if you give up you are out" Brent is clearly smart enough to shut his mouth and just take his punishment. Although I think he deserves what he is getting, I can't help worry that Brent isn't going to be able to hang on. It's not that I fall sorry for him but I don't exactly want to watch a second person fall to their death in less than a week, and I don't know how long Eric is going to have him hang there, it is not like the ledge is very easy to hold onto. We are stood there for a good ten minutes before Eric calls time, I watch as Drew and Peter go and help him up, he is soaked from all the water of the chasm that sprayed on him. "Now get back in that training room, or so help me" Eric shouted at him. I turn to watch Brent scurry back the way we came, the rest of them following.

Once the others have gone, I follow Eric out of the Dauntless compound, once we are outside, we break into a jog. Due to Dauntless being mainly underground, there is a quite steep hill we have to climb in order to get to street level. When we get to the streets, Eric starts to talk, "You really should talk to your brother, you know?" he mutters, I turn to him shocked.

"Since when did you care about my brother, I thought you guys hated each other?" I ask him not sure why he is saying this. I hear him sigh heavily before responding,

"While yes, we are in no way best buds, I do not hate your brother." He pauses for a while seemingly not knowing how to put his thoughts into words, "I didn't like your brother during our initiation, he was my biggest rival, he was the only person who beat me in stage one, and in the final rankings he was first and I was second. The only reason I am a leader is because he didn't take it." I look at him shocked,

"So you hated my brother just because he ranked hire than you at the end of initiation?" I ask him, not quite believing what I am hearing.

"What can I say? I was young, I had grown up the youngest of five boys, I felt like this had been my time to shine, to prove my ability and worth, and being the naïve teenager I was I felt Four was taking away my opportunity. I was worried if I didn't do the best in the class, I would just be forgotten, overlooked by everyone, just like I had been the whole of my childhood."

"I'm sorry" I tell him unsure how to respond to the supposed most feared Dauntless leader telling me about his upbringing.

"Don't be, my childhood looks saint-like compared to yours", he mutters

"Yeah" I sigh, not liking to be reminded of my growing up. "But it doesn't mean you had the best childhood either"

He doesn't saying any for a while and when he does he changes the subject back to why I need to talk to my brother "As I was saying, I don't hate your brother anymore, we have come to understand our differences and are now civil towards each other, especially when I found out about his, your childhood. Which is why you need to talk to him, he doesn't want you hating him, and he feels so guilty for you breaking your arm."

"But that wasn't his fault, I hit that wall out of anger-fuelled stupidity", I interrupt.

"I know that, but he still feels bad for saying those things to you and believes that had he been more careful with what he was saying, you wouldn't have gotten that angry and you know deep down that it is true."

"Possibly, but still I didn't help things did I? Jumping to conclusions like I did and ignoring him as well was not the smartest thing in the world to do, but I don't know if I can, I feel to guilty"

"Well you should at least think about it" Eric tells me, slowing his jog down into a walk. I mumble that he is probably right, I notice we are back at the compound already, I am about to ask Eric how long we were out for when he turns to me and says, "We were out for an hour".

"But how? I didn't even ask you anything", he doesn't say anything and just shakes his head an amused smirk on his face again and I can't help but laugh.

We make our way towards the training room and when we arrive Eric holds the door open for me, before he goes to talk to Tobias. They talk for a few minutes, while I go sit on one of the nearby benches, before Eric calls everyone to come stand around the 'ring', I don't know if he means me to but not wanting to miss out I make my way over too. The 'ring' doesn't look anything like a ring, in fact it is merely a slightly raised canvas square. "Right, we are going to start the fights, this is the primary thing you are going to be ranked on in Stage one, so fight hard" He is about to start calling the first pair to fight when someone asks a question, "What are we ranked for?" I see Eric's eyes light up, which I pretty sure cannot mean anything good, "two reasons, first, the rankings decide which job you get after initiation, there are only a few desirable jobs so you'll want to rank high. And the second is that only the top ten initiates get to become full Dauntless members, the rest of you will get cut." I see out of the corner of my eye that some of the others are looking very worried, a few look like they are about to cry, but I continue looking at Eric, I know I am going to get through this initiation I am sure of it. I see Peter ask another question, "What happens if we get cut?"

"Well there's no going back to your families so you live factionless" Eric tells us. Most others seem out raged by what we've just be told and make is known.

"Why didn't we know that?" someone asks, "We should have been told"

"Why, out of fear? Cause if that's the case, you might as well get out now. If you're really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail, alright, you chose us… now we get to choose you." Eric tells us before calling out the names for the first fight, "Edward, Brent, in the ring" I watch as Edward and Brent cautiously walk towards the mats, "how long do we fight for?" I hear Edward ask.

"Until one of you can't continue" Eric tells them.

"Or one of you could concede", I hear Tobias add.

"According to the old rules, new rules, no one concedes", Eric says, and I watch as he and Tobias have some sort of standoff, obviously some of that rivalry is still there, but old habits die hard I guess. Both Edward and Brent just look at them, neither too sure as to if they should start. "Go!" Eric tells them impatiently, motioning forward with his arm. The fight didn't last long, Brent got a few punches in at the start but it was clear Edward was the better fighter and Brent was out cold after about six minutes. Once he was down, Edward and Tobias took him down to the infirmary, as Eric went over to the board and circled Edward's name, declaring him the winner. "Christina and Molly" I hear Eric call out, both girls make their way to the ring quickly. Molly is much bigger than Christina and has a height advantage of about a head and a half, but she was also very heavy on her feet whereas Christina was quite agile. This fight lasted much longer than the first and it was clear Eric was getting annoyed. After 10 minutes of circling each other with a few punches here and there, Eric shouted at them again, "Stop playing with each other!" This was apparently all Molly needed to hear, and within a couple minutes Christina was being taken to the infirmary. Next up was Will and Al, there match was quicker, but no less pathetic. They each got a few hits in, before Will was knocked out from one punch to the side of the head. It was clear both Eric and Tobias were getting very bored, I'm not surprised I am too, it taken about twenty five minutes to get through three fights, and those that were quick were only so because the loser couldn't put up much of a fight. This didn't change for the last to fights Drew didn't even land a single punch before Peter had him out cold. The fight between Myra and Tris was seemingly the icing to this disastrous metaphor of a cake. Neither girl wanted to hurt the other, but I doubt either of them were strong enough to do all that much damage in the first place. It isn't that I don't like Tris, in fact, she was very kind, but surely she would have known she would have to fight before she joined Dauntless. About ten minutes into the fight, it was clear neither of them was going to make a move, so Eric just called of the match, "that's enough for today, he told those that were still in the room after nearly half of us being in the infirmary, and when nobody seemed to move, Eric got very angry. "Everybody out now!" he shouted.

Whilst I'm waiting for the rest of the initiates to leave before talking to my brother, I watch Eric stalk over to the rows of punching bags and start taking them down, it is clear he is not happy as he aggressively wrenches the bags from the fastenings on the ceiling and drops them on the floor, not caring for the loud noises.

"Can we talk?" I ask Tobias

"Look I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did, and I didn't mean it. I was, I was just angry with myself and I took that out on you and I shouldn't have. And I'm sorry about your," He tells me but I interrupt him before he can even finish his sentence.

"Don't say it, me breaking my wrist was in no way your fault." I see him about to disagree, "No I mean it, and you didn't break my wrist did you. It was my fault ok? You may have said some stupid things, which I accept your apology for, but I also didn't help, jumping to conclusions and not letting you explain yourself. So why don't we put this whole fiasco behind us and just get on from now one yeah?" he nods in agreeance before pulling me in for a hug, being mindful of my arm.

 **Well there's another chapter for you, i am so sorry it has been so long since an update, i just havent been up to writing recently and then i had to go on a big family holiday, so i couldnt bring my laptop with me. i hope to get some sort of schedule of when i will update, but school is extremely hectic and mental health wise i havent been great but i will try once i get back into the swing of things.**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	8. Chapter 8

Parker's POV

After making up with my brother, we make our way to the mess hall, for dinner. Despite having eaten only a few hours earlier, I'm already starving from the run. Tobias helpfully carries my tray over to his usual table. About ten minutes later I hear the chair next to me be pulled back, and I am surprised to see Eric drop into the seat. He had clearly been spending that time working out his anger as his T-shirt was drenched in sweat, but despite this, he still seemed very pissed off. His big frame clearly didn't fit the table and he looked somewhat out of place as he seemingly dwarfed the table and even more so the chair he was sat at. A bit puzzled as to why he chose to sit next to me when he never eats with the rest of Dauntless, especially when we initiates are in here eating. I don't say anything but look over to my brother who is sitting across the table from me and one look at his face tells me he is just as confused as I am. We sit there in silence, not that we had been talking before Eric came along, as I struggled with not spilling any of my dinner down me. After a while I see Tobias stand up and take his empty tray over to the bins and then proceed to walk out of the mess hall. I carry on eating my dinner, though I think you could barely call it eating, as I am only half way through my food. A few minutes later I still haven't made that much progress with my meal, as the beans keep falling off my fork when I try to eat them, I notice that Eric has now finished his own meal, but is still sitting at the table. At first I am confused as to why he hasn't left given he has finished when it dawns on me that he is waiting for me to finish, and not wanting to be a burden a tell him, "You don't have to wait for me to finish you know, and I very much doubt you want to be in for longer than necessary" he doesn't say anything for a while, he just looks at me curiously before muttering "It's fine". It wasn't so much that I was uncomfortable with him sitting there, in fact it was quite nice that I wasn't left alone to eat my dinner, but I really didn't want him to be wasting his time waiting for me when I'm sure he has more important things to do, but I do not argue and just try to eat my dinner as quickly as possible. However the cast makes that virtually impossible, and when I am done ten minutes later, the mess hall is virtually empty except for people who have just come in from afternoon shifts or the cleaning staff. I stand up once I am done and I see Eric do the same but before I can take my tray, he has grabbed it, and has put it in one of the bins, "You really didn't have to, I can do it myself you know." I tell him, but I am still very grateful.

"As much as you would like to think you could carry that tray, you and I both know that you wouldn't be able to lift the tray without something falling to the floor, given your injuries" he says, nodding to my hands, "And as funny as that would be for me to watch, I am sure it would be embarrassing for you, so I thought I would save you from yourself" I try to come up with some sort of counter argument, I can't and I can hear him laughing at me. "You won't be able to come up with a reason for me not too, then why try"

"Fine, but don't think I am going silently," I tell him somewhat defiantly.

"Yeah sure," he says and amused look on his face, and just can't help but smile back. We both walk out of the mess hall before I make my way down to the initiates' dorm, weirdly happy but I can't seem to explain why. When I get into the dorm room I see Tris sitting on her bed clearly upset and I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with what happened in her fight against Myra this afternoon. "Hey," I say approaching her.

"Hey," she responds.

"I see you are not with Christina and that lot, where are they anyway?"

"They went to go look at the shops, I think Al wanted to get a tattoo as he thinks it will make him stop crying or something like that, but I'm not so sure."

"And you would rather sit in here by yourself than go out with them? You okay?"

"I'm just thinking about initiation, I am going to get cut aren't I?"

"Hey, you don't know anything for certain yet," I tell her sympathetically

"Yeah I do, I can't bear to hit anyone, you saw my fight with Myra today, we didn't even hit each other once, and even if I could bring up the courage to hit someone I would be too weak to actually do anything to them, not to mention the fact that I am useless with a gun, I didn't even hit the target once, and according to Will I should have hit it even if it was by accident"

"Well, you are right that it is not going great at the moment but all you need to do is practice, we've only been here to days and we've got a few weeks before stage one is complete you have lots of time to improve, plus, you don't know how the Dauntless-born are doing do you"

"Hmm maybe you are right"

"I am sure you will be fine Tris, listen I am going for a shower given nobody else is here, you wouldn't mind wrapping a towel round my arm, it's just I am not supposed to get it wet and I can't exactly use my other hand at the moment" I ask her showing my bandaged left hand. She agrees to help me and ten minutes later I am on my bed, letting my hair dry naturally, not being bothered to even attempt to use one of those hairdryers in the bathroom even with Tris offer of help.

The next week passed without too many hitches, mine and Tobias' have grown closer and our relationship is stronger than ever, we haven't had any fights. The weeks have passed in a very similar manner; each morning I would wake up, sometimes with the others, sometimes before. After breakfast, I would go for a run with Eric, and if he had a meeting I would just watch the others train, usually with guns. And then after lunch, I would go on another run before watching the others fight. They were getting better, especially Tris. Speaking of Tris, we were getting closer and were becoming good friends, however, I didn't get on with the others much, as I usually eat with Tobias or occasionally with Eric if Tobias is not there. It's not that I don't like Christina and that lot, I just don't spend much time with them, I usually shower after dinner so nobody is in the dorm, and then I am usually up and eating before them. I got my mother's book back, I woke up early again one morning and walked into the training room, where Eric was setting up punching bags, I found it sitting on my usual bench. I am sure Eric was the one who put it there as he would have had to have seen it when he came in, however I didn't say anything.

 **sorry, its been so long since an update, school is getting pretty heavy with all the controlled assessments i have to complete, and it doesn't help I'm missing school so much. but anyway hope you liked the chapter and i promise to update soon and as always thanks to everyone that reviews, favourites and follows the story, it means a lot to me.**


	9. Chapter 9

Parker's POV

I wake up with a start, I'd had a nightmare, and my head is pounding. I look at the clock and I see it is only three in the morning, I sigh heavily knowing I won't be able to get back to sleep, not after having such a vivid nightmare. I lie on my bed, trying not to move too much, as not to wake the others, but I soon become restless. I look again at the clock and the red letters blink at me harshly, I'm surprised it has only been ten minutes. I decide there is no point staying in here when I am not going to be able to get to sleep and I have just under three hours before someone will come in and wake us up. My head still pounding, I make my way out of the dorm, trying not to wake anyone up, that is not difficult as I am the closest to the door, but I still don't want to risk anything. I push the door open. I look around one more time to make sure I didn't wake anybody up before leaving.

I didn't have any idea of what I was going to do once I got out of the room, so I just let myself walk aimlessly around the compound, but still careful to not make a sound. I have been walking for what feels about ten minutes and my headache hasn't gotten any better. I soon hear the sound of rushing water, and I realise I am at the chasm. For some reason, the sound of the water is somewhat soothing for my head, so I decide to sit on the bridge, my feet dangling over the edge, the rest of my body stopped by the metal railing that runs along each side of the bridge. I didn't know how long I was sat there for, and I don't notice the footsteps of someone approaching, "What are you doing up? You shouldn't be out of your bed at half three in the morning" I jump, having not realised there was somebody there.

"I just- I just needed to get out of there" I stutter as I look up at Eric, expecting him to be angry at me. I am shocked when our eyes meet and he doesn't look as cross as I had expected him to be. I was even more surprised when I feel him sit down next to me. "You okay?" he asks me, I don't hear any anger in his voice. I sigh heavily before shaking my head. I wince at my actions, my headache suddenly growing stronger. Eric must have noticed me wince "Follow me," he tells me standing and then holding out his hand to help me up, which I take gratefully, I follow him down a couple of corridors before he goes up a small flight of stairs.

We walk about halfway down a third corridor before he stops in front of a door. I watch as he reaches into a trouser pocket and brings out a small plastic card, he then swipes it in a box before opening the door and pushing me gently through. "You can go sit on the sofa," he tells me, before going over to a small kitchen area and rooting through a couple of cupboards. I do as he says and I take the time to look around me, I figure I must be in his apartment, which is a bit confusing but I try not to think about that. I notice the room is quite big, and there are two other doors in the room, besides the one we came through, which I imagine leads to his bedroom and a bathroom. "Here", l look up to see Eric holding out a glass of water and a small packet of pills, "These will help with your head" I take the painkillers and the glass from him before, quickly popping the pills into my mouth and downing the glass of water. I mutter a quick thanks before handing him back the glass, which he sits down on a nearby coffee table. We sit in silence for a few seconds before Eric starts to speak, "Do you want to talk about it?" he asks me softly, I think about it for a bit, not sure whether or I should tell him, he might tell someone.

He notices my hesitation, "You don't have to tell me anything, but if you did want to, I can promise you it will not leave this apartment" he tells me sincerely. I consider this for a few minutes before I start to tell him about the nightmare, "I dreamt I was back in Abnegation, that he- he had found a way to make me stay. He was just there beating me and he wouldn't stop… I couldn't stop him." I've started to cry now.

I feel Eric wrap his arms around me, "Hey, it's okay, you're not in Abnegation, you're in Dauntless, he's not going to hurt you again." He whispers to me.

"I know, I know, it just- it just felt so real" I whisper back, my tears still haven't ceased. His arms around me tighten, "You're safe, and he can't get you." He whispers. I don't say anything, I just grab at his shirt tighter and let out a small whimper and shut my eyes.

 **here's another chapter for you, hoped you liked it. thank you to everybody you has reviewed, followed or favourited the story, it really means a lot. i know this chapter is rather short, i will compensate that with another chapter soon**

 **~depressedintrover~**


	10. Chapter 10

Parker's POV

I feel someone shake me gently, my eyes open and I see Eric standing above me, "You feeling any better?" he asks me. I nod my head my headache finally gone. "Come on you, we're gonna go get that cast off," he tells me before helping me up off the black leather sofa I had been lying on. He leads me out the door, his hand resting on my back.

Once we are at the infirmary, I am sat down on one the beds as a nurse cuts the cast so it can be removed from my arm. The nurse is using some sort of rotating blade to cut down the length of the cast, and not liking seeing it so close to my arm, I look away. I am surprised to see Eric leaning against the doorway, I would have thought he would leave as soon as I got there. I don't have much time to dwell on the fact he hasn't said anything about last night, as the nurse has finished. "All done", she announces, smiling at me, "Now, you can resume all parts of training, but it will take a bit of getting used to, so I would suggest not starting fights straight away," she is looking at Eric with a pointed look as she says this. He doesn't say anything and just has his trademark smirk.

I hop off the bed I was sitting on and make my way out of the infirmary, Eric following close behind. Once we are out, Eric's hand returns to my back and he leads me to the mess hall, when we arrive, Eric grabs me my food before setting it down next to his tray and we start to eat. The nurse was right, it really was going to take some getting used to, eating with my right hand wasn't as hard as eating with my left but not having used it for a week certainly didn't make it easy. We sit there for about ten minutes before I see Tobias walk in and get his own breakfast. As he approaches the table, Eric has finished and says that he's off to wake the other initiates. "How come you're up already?" My brother asks me, I don't say anything I just shake my right arm in front of his face, "Ahh, you got your cast off." He says after a few minutes, I just roll my eyes at him, he never was the most observant of people. "We're starting knife training today, it will be good for you to get back into the swing of things", he tells me. We sit in a comfortable silence until the other initiates start to trickle in for their breakfast. "Well I am going to go set up for training today, you want to come?" Tobias asks me.

"Sure," I say and follow him over to the bins to put my tray away before following him to the training room. When we get there, Eric has already started setting up. I go and sit on my usual bench and watch as Eric and Tobias move out eleven targets, they must be very heavy but neither of the boys look like they are struggling at all. A while later, the others make their way through the door. We all gather round by Tobias and Eric, and after making sure we are all present, Eric starts to talk, "Right, today we are going to start knife throwing, so make sure to watch Four very closely". We all do as he says as Tobias shows us the correct way to hold the knife and throw it. He then faces one of the targets and throws the knife in his hand, as I expected the knife lands directly in the middle of the target. "Everyone collect some knives and stand in front of a target" Eric orders, I am the only one who moves towards the table, and collects four knives, "NOW!" Eric shouts at the rest of them and I watch as they all scramble for the daggers. Once everyone Is standing front of a target, I notice there is nobody either side of me, I am stood at the end of the row so not having anybody on the right of me is expected, but there should be somebody on my left, but the closest person to me is Brent and he is in front of the next target down. I realise somebody must be in the infirmary but I don't look to see who, I just focus on getting the correct position, everyone has thrown their first knife and none of them stuck, whilst I stand there getting used to my wrist. "Hey stiff, remember what a knife is." I look over to my left to see that it was Brent that spoke to me. I ignore him and just throw the knife, it doesn't go anywhere near the target, like the other's knives had, but I don't care as I know my wrist is going to affect my performance, "The stiff doesn't even know what a target is!" I hear Brent call out to me again, this time I am angry, but I don't say anything, instead, I go back to face my target, fuming. "Oh, is the stiff sulking, why don't you go cry to mummy and daddy, oh wait.", I don't even look at him and throw my knife at the target and it has barely left my hand before I turn and throw the second one at the target to my left and then finally turn and throw the final knife at Brent's target. I hear all the knives hit the target mere seconds after the other and see that all three daggers are stuck in the middle of each target, by now everyone is staring at me, even Tobias and Eric, though they are slightly better at hiding their surprise than my fellow classmates. I don't bother to look at anyone before I storm out of the room, what Brent said really got to me.

 **Here's another chapter for you, I'm so sorry I said I was going to upload soon, life just got a bit overwhelming for a while. But given it was such a short chapter last time I promise I will update again in about an hour or so, I promise, if I get at least one review before that time, I will update immediately. once again, sorry for the lack of updates, everything is just a bit shit at the moment, aI'veive fucked up badly. thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and followed, it means so much.**

 **~depressedintrovert** ~


	11. Chapter 11

Parker's POV

I get out of the room as quickly as possible and go down some random hallway. I stop when I get to a small, secluded alcove, where I sit in the corner, resting my head against the wall, trying to control my breathing, as I was starting to hyperventilate. My breathing still not calming down, I close my eyes and slam my head back against the wall, not caring about the pain. "Oi!" I hear someone call, and I know immediately that it is Eric, "Go the fuck away, Eric!" I shout at him, my eyes still closed, my breathing still fast and shallow. "I'm not going anywhere, and you need to breathe" he tells me, he isn't shouting but I am too angry and upset to notice, "What the fuck do you think I'm doing" I continue to shout at him. He grabs my arm, and I know he is trying to help but I still try to pull my arm out of his grip, "Get the fuck off of me!" I'm still shouting, which is making my breathing worse. "Just stop will you", he says to me, placing my hand on his chest so I can get my breathing back to normal. I stop hyperventilating eventually but, I've started to cry. Eric doesn't say anything and just pulls me into his lap, "You're okay" he whispers to me. "You are safe". Neither of us say anything, he just slowly rubs my back, as I drift off to sleep.

"Parker, hey", I hear someone call my name. I open my eyes and realise it is Eric. "It is lunch." I just nod and stand up, I turn round and I hold out my arm to help Eric up. "You, okay?" he asks me, I don't say anything and I hear him sigh.

When we get to the mess hall he tells me to go sit by my brother and that he will grab me lunch. I go over to the table where Tobias is sat and sit opposite him, "you alright Parker?" he asks me,

"I'm fine," I tell him.

"You sure?"

"I. said. I. Am. Fine. Tobias." I say irritably. I stand up in my seat and am about to leave when a hand on my shoulder, pushes me back into my seat. "You, need to sit and eat" I hear Eric tell me as he places a tray in front of me. I sigh heavily and look at the food. I eat some of it but mainly just push the food around my plate. I watch the food as I move it around my plate, so I miss the glances between Eric and Tobias. After a while, I feel Eric brush past me as he stands up from his seat, "Initiates, you have five minutes to finish and meet us in the training room", Eric calls out. I take my chance to leave and stand up taking my tray over to the bins, even though I have barely eaten anything. I exit the room quickly and make my way to the training room before anybody can stop me. It's not long till I hear Eric and Tobias talking as they enter, but I continue looking at the wooden floorboards below me. I see, out of the corner of my eye, them setting up the punching bags. They finish setting up just as the first few initiates come in. One of them is Brent, as soon as he sees me he has a smug look on his face, I want to punch the look of his face, but I ignore him instead. Once everyone is in the room, Tobias goes on to explain what we are going to do, "for the first half you are going to work on the punching bags and then we will continue fights until dinner".

"Parker, with me" I look up to see Eric beckoning me over to the punching bag in the corner, I make my way over to him. "I'm going to show you what you missed", he tells me and proceeds to show me the correct way to punch as well as various other moves and techniques. He then motions towards the punching bag. I approach it and take the stance is showed me and throw a few punches. The bag hardly moves. "You're nearly there you just need to rotate slightly," he tells me, holding my hips and turning my body slightly, so I am at a better angle to the bag, "And you need to remember to keep tension here" he continues, he places his hand on my stomach. I nod and punch again, trying to ignore the tingling sensation that ran through my body. This time the bag swings much more and I keep hitting the bag, it moving more and more every time until it swings so much that it nearly hits me as it comes back, "Good, but don't forget to protect your face as well." Eric says, moving one of my arms in front of my stomach and the other in front of my face. I hit the bag a few more times, keeping my hands where they were. "Impressive, you should start on practising your kicking, you have thirty minutes before the fights start" he tells me. I don't say anything and just kick the bag as hard as I can, the bag swings more than it had ever done when I was punching it. I hear Eric chuckle to himself before walking off and scrutinising the other initiates.

After a while, Tobias calls us over, "We are going to start the fights" he tells us, before showing us the board, it shows as follows:

Peter – Brent

Edward – Drew

Christina – Al

Myra – Molly

Will – Tris

Parker –

To say I am annoyed would be an understatement, I finally get my cast off and I not going to even be fighting. Sighing heavily, I go stand round the ring with the rest of the initiates, and watch as Peter and Brent step into the ring. The fight doesn't last long, Brent may be big but his punches are sloppy and Peter quickly defeats him. The rest of the fights pass in varying length of times, depending on whether the two who are fighting are friends or in Molly, Myra, Drew and Edward's case, one was far stronger than the other. By the time the fights are finished, only a few people are in the infirmary, those still in the room are; myself, Eric, Tobias, Edward, Peter, Molly, Tris and Al. I stand up from the bench I had sat on, thinking it was probably time dinner as everyone except me had fought. Eric must have seen me stand. "Not so fast, you've still got to fight" he calls out. I look at him confused, and am about to ask him what he means, everyone has fought, when he continues talking, "You get to pick who you want to fight," I nod and look at who is left in the room when I get an idea.

"You chosen yet?" Eric says again and I nod my head, I take one final look at those who are left in the room, most are looking at me apprehensively but a couple look ready to take on a fight. I look Eric directly in the eyes when I give him my answer, "Four." I hear several gasps, and my brother questions me quietly, but Eric doesn't look at all surprised. Either he has a really good poker face or he was expecting me to pick my brother. I have a feeling it's the latter, it's probably why he gave me the choice.

"Alright then, in the ring" he says before writing my brother's name next to mine. I make my way over to the ring and my brother does the same. We stand there, arms up, watching each other, waiting for Eric to tell us to start, "Okay, go". Tobias and circle each other for a bit before I take a punch at him, remembering what Eric said about protecting _both_ my face and stomach. Tobias easily blocks the punch and sends one to my face, luckily I'm able to dodge it. I fake a punch at his face, he goes to block, leaving me to kick him in his undefended stomach. He doubles down from the kick before lunging at me, he gets a good couple of punches in before, I attack again. This time I go for his face, I hit him several times. I kick him again in the stomach, but this time he catches it and twists it round making me fall to the fall. He lets go of my foot to let my stand up and I take the opportunity to his him where it really hurts, I hear him groan loudly. I laugh a little and walk to the edge of the platform to allow him to stand up. Once he's up on his feet he lunges at me, but I jump quickly out of the way. I punch him hard in the face and I hear something crack, and there is a lot of blood coming out his nose. I lunge at him again, but Tobias punches me in the gut and flips me over onto my back, winding me. The next thing I know Tobias is standing above me, "Truce?" he asks, giving me a hand up, I take his hand, but don't say anything, I wait till he is facing me and then punch him twice and send a powerful kick to his stomach. I watch as he falls onto his back and I walk over to him, "Truce." I say to him laughing slightly whilst sticking out my arm and pulling my brother, who I am pleased to see is has a slight smile on his face. Eric tells us that we can all go to lunch and once all the other initiates have left I go check, on my brother, who is trying to get the blood to stop, "You sure you're okay? I didn't mean to hit you quite that hard" I tell him, feeling a bit guilty.

"Parks, I'm fine, don't feel guilty, I was a bit shocked you could punch that hard but no harm has been done. See, I'm okay" he tells me ruffling my hair, "I'm gonna head down to the infirmary, go get this sorted." Tobias says, heading towards the door, still chuckling, "Parks I mean it, stop worrying" he calls out to me one last time, before walking out the door. I sigh, still feeling bad for hitting him.

"You did good today," I hear Eric say from behind me.

"You don't seem surprised", I ask him but it comes out more of a statement.

"Why would I be, you are a very capable fighter, you need to believe in yourself more."

"Hmmm," I don't quite agree with him, "Even so, you didn't look surprised when I picked to fight my brother."

"Why do you think I gave you a choice?" is all he says to me before, pulling down the last of the punching bags and letting it drop to the floor. "Follow me." I look up confused, but follow him anyway, "Where are we going?" I ask him, he turns to me, an amused look on his face, "But that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Neither of us say anything, and after a while, he stops in front of some sort of shop and I realise it is a tattoo parlour. I raise my eyebrow at him, "I need to get one of mine finished, thought you might as well have a look round" he tells me before making his way over to the counter. I look around me, the walls are lined with different designs, I watch as Eric follows a tattooist into a back room but before he goes through he calls out, "Oh, by the way, initiates get their first tattoo free." I don't say anything and absentmindedly nod, I can't take my eyes away from the designs on the walls. I finally found one design that I like, it is a full sleeve and is a maze-like pattern. The maze is drawn to look 3D, and it starts at my shoulder and the maze is black, but once it get to my lower arm the colours change and the maze design continues but this time the background is black and the maze is the colour of my arm. I take the design over to a lady sitting at a chair and ask if she can do the design. "Sure I can," she tells me smiling, "if you want to just sit down on the chair" just as I sit down I see Eric immerge from the back room. "Now where would you like it?" Tori asks me.

"Uhhh, my right arm please"

"Alright, I'm going to warn you it will be painful at the start, and it will take a while, you might have to come back another day to finish, depending how quickly I can get it done." She tells me, I nod my head and she starts. She was right about one thing, it hurt like a mother-fucker. "My name's Tori by the way"

"Parker" I tell her through gritted teeth, that's when I hear Eric laugh at me, I look up and scowl at him, but he just laughs at me more, a big smirk plastered on his face. I shake my head and look away from him. I shake my head at him and look away.

I feel someone shake me, and I slowly open my eyes and seeit'ss Eric, "What do you want?" I ask not liking having been awoken so suddenly, "Tori has finished" he tells me.

"Oh right, yeah" I say and look over at the tattoo, I am really pleased with how it's turned out. "Thanks, Tori, it looks really good" I say stifling a yawn, "Sorry about falling asleep," I say through a yawn. She just chuckles at me, "It's fine" she tells me, "I'm not surprised, it's nearly ten o'clock". However I don't hear the rest of what she says, I lean my head back on the chair and start to fall asleep. "Right, come on, you better go to bed" I hear Eric say, and I shake my head sleepily, not wanting to move. I suddenly feel myself being picked up and carried somewhere, but I am too tired to care.

 **there's another chapter for you, thank you to everyone who has reviewed etc. hope to update again soon. but i wouldnt take my word for it looking at my track record. ha.**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	12. Chapter 12

Eric's POV

I listen to Tori explaining how to care for the tattoo, when I look down as see Parker has fallen asleep, shaking my head I go over to the chair, "Right, come on, you better go to bed", I say but she just shakes her head and doesn't move from the chair. I chuckle slightly, and thank Tori, before picking Parker up. I decide to take her to my apartment as it is not far away and so I don't have to walk the whole other side of the compound to the initiates' dorm. Besides, Parker will probably wake early enough to get down there before any of the others wake up. I open the door to my apartment with great difficulty, having to push the door open with my foot. I lay her down on my bed and pull the blanket over her. I make my way into my kitchen and pour myself a drink before starting to look through the various emails from Max and Jeannine about leadership meetings. However I have been excused from most of my duties as a leader, whilst overseeing the initiates. It's around midnight by the time I finish my work for the night, so I decide to go have a quick shower. As I step out of the bathroom, shirtless, dressed in only black pyjama bottoms, I hear somebody screaming and I realise it is coming from my bedroom, where Parker is.

 **i know this is incredibly short but i will upload the next chapter straightaway**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	13. Chapter 13

Parker's POV

 _I lie on my bed, not making a sound as I listen to the crashes and sounds of leather hitting flesh coming from Tobias is room. It doesn't stop and I just listen, hoping he won't come into my room once he is done with Tobias. I have no such luck, the floorboards outside my room creak and light streams into my room as someone pushes the door open. I shut my eyes and pretend to be asleep, maybe he will think that I am asleep and leave me alone. For a moment nothing makes a sound and I think perhaps he has gone, but before I know it I am being pulled out my bed and looking into Marcus' murderous, cold grey eyes. "Please, Please, don't" I beg, he gives me an almost deranged smile, bringing his hand down._

I thrash about on the bed, crying my eyes out, trying to get away from what is happening in my nightmare, I feel somebody grab my arms, and I kick my legs out defensively, "Fuck!" I hear someone shout out, "Parker, it's only me, you're okay". I open my eyes at the sound of their voice, "Eric?" I gasp through my tears. "You're okay" I hear him whisper. I open my eyes fully and sit up I realise I'm not in the initiate dorm, he must brought me here when I fell asleep, I think to myself.

I lean my head back onto his shoulder and that's when I notice he is only dressed in pyjama bottoms, but I don't care, and I just focus on getting my breathing under control. After a few long minutes I finally get my breathing normal, and I feel Eric move off the bed from behind me, "You okay now?", I hear him ask, and nod, but I start to worry when I realise I have to go back to sleep, back to the nightmare. Eric must have sensed this as he starts to speak again, "You sure you are okay?" he asks again, I go to nod, not wanting to appear weak in front of him, but I hesitate before asking him I question, "Could- could you stay?" I ask him, he appears hesitant, "Just till I fall asleep?" I add as an afterthought. I watch him as he pauses for a moment before nodding and walking round to the other side of the bed, and climbing in.

I lie down, and shut my eyes, trying to get back to sleep, but every time I close my eyes I see the face of Marcus. After what felt like an eternity, I give up on trying to go to sleep, and just lie on my back staring at the dark ceiling above me, tears threatening to spill. I suddenly feel Eric grab me, pulling me against his chest, his strong arms wrapped around me. "He's not going to get you. You're safe" he whispers. I don't say anything, I just shut my eyes, willing myself to fall asleep. After a few minutes, feeling much safer in his arms, my eyes begin feel heavy and soon I am fast asleep.

 **Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays to those who don't celebrate. i know the last two chapters have been short but i am now out of pre-written chapters but if i get five reviews by the end the year i will make sure i finish the chapter and post it**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	14. Chapter 14

**ANSWER MY QUESTION AND WILL UPDATE IMMEDIATELY.**

 **Hi, sorry this isn't a chapter, but please read. i need advice, i want to do a bit of another character's point of view but it isn't really enough to warrant a new chapter, should i put multiple POVs in a single chapter or have some really short chapters. I will update with next chapter as soon as i get answer**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	15. Chapter 15

Parker's POV

I wake up to Eric shaking me gently, "Come on sleepyhead, breakfast time." I hear him say. Yawning I get out of bed, and follow him out the door and we make our way to the initiates dorm. When we get there he goes into the dauntless-born dorm to wake them up, so I take this time to change my clothes before the transfers are woken up. Just as I put my dirty clothes under my bunk, Eric walks in with the metal bar, I quickly make my room into the corridor and cover my ears, dulling the loud sound of Eric waking the others up. I look up to see Eric walk out of the room laughing at me and I remove my hands from my ears. "Hey, it's not funny" I tell him indignantly, "it's too early for loud noises." He chuckles slightly, before following me to the mess hall.

Breakfast was rather uneventful, not that it had ever been, and by the time the other's emerged for breakfast I had finished and making my way down to the training room. I see that Eric and Tobias are already in there setting up the targets for knife throwing. I walk over to my usual bench, and watch as Eric and Tobias lay out the knives. Soon, the other initiates start to enter, we are quickly set to work on knife throwing. From the start I hit the centre of the target every time and a quickly look round to see how everybody else is doing, a few people have got a knife or two to stick but most just tend to bounce off the boards and I am the only one who has managed to get my knives near the centre let alone all of them right in the middle. As I look around I see Eric standing behind a boy called Al, I watch as Al throws his third knife and it falls to the ground, barely three foot from his feet. "Well that was pathetic." I hear Eric say,

"It slipped" Al answers him

"Well go get it"

"What, while their throwing?"

"Are you afraid?"

"Of getting stabbed by an airborne knife? Yes." Al says with an air of flippancy. I shake my head slightly, admitting to cowardice was bad enough, but somewhat understandable, having an attitude with a Dauntless leader, let alone Eric, was just plain moronic. Eric doesn't say anything for a while, I'm sure this cannot be good. "Everybody stop!" Eric shouts, we all do as told and turn to look at him. He has turned back to look at Al, who looks like he might pee himself. "Stand in front of the target" Eric orders Al, who does so, but only after a lot of hesitation. "Now, you are going to stand there, while Four throws these knives, and if I see you flinch, you're out" I watch as my brother approaches the table, and quickly picks up four knives. I glance over a Tris, who is standing next to me, it is clear she doesn't sit right with this, "Don't you dare say anything" I mutter to her, "You're going to make it worse for everybody" I watch her carefully, not sure whether or not she is going to say anything. She is watching Tobias, and just as he brings the knife up to throw it she has to go and open her mouth. "Stop!" she shouts, and everybody looks at her in shocked silence. "Any idiot can stand in front of a target" she says "it doesn't prove anything except that you're bullying us. Which, as I recall, is a sign of cowardice", Eric stares at with such anger that let's just say, if looks could kill.

"Well then, it should be easy for you to do it then" she nods and starts to walk over to where Al is standing, but Eric stops her, "No, your own target, just because you've mouthed off doesn't mean he gets out his punishment". She nods again and walks to the next target. Well now you've gone and done it, I think. I suddenly notice everybody is staring at me, oh shit, I said that out loud, I realise when I see the smirks on Eric and Tobias's faces. I see Eric wave the knives in his hand slightly, and I know what he is asking me to do, so I take the knives from him and stand in front of the target Tris is at. I know she is my friend, but I cannot feel much remorse for her, I did tell her not to open her mouth. That she would just make it worse, but she didn't listen. So really she deserves what she's getting in my eyes, besides everybody knows what good aim I have, it's not like I'm going to kill her by accident. "Parker first" Eric calls out, "Same rules apply stiff, you flinch, you're out", Eric then motions for me to start. I throw the first knife, it lands a few inches away from away from her leg. I throw the second one and it lands barely an inch away from the top of her head. "You can get closer than that" Eric calls out to me. I throw the third and final knife at her, it clips her ear and I know that she is bleeding, after all, that is what I was aiming for. I can see that she is not happy, but I don't care, she deserves it. I walk out of the room, not bothering to wait to be dismissed. I go to the dorm, and sit on my bed. After a few minutes the others come into the dorm, I notice Al is with them, so clearly he didn't flinch and he is still in initiation, not that he is going to be much longer. He is weak, he cries at night and he doesn't even try, he is bound to get cut at the end of this stage.

I sit on my bed minding my own business as everybody else talks in small groups, when I notice Tris and Christina are standing in front of my bed. "What do you want?" I ask wearily, not really wanting to deal with any drama, "you cut me" she tells me, clearly she is angry

"No shit. You should be thanking me" I tell her, really getting annoyed

"Why should she thank you, you cut her on purpose" Christina interjects, but I ignore her.

"You really think Eric would have let you get away without a scratch? Besides you deserved it" I say turning back to Tris.

"How can you say something like that? I thought we were friends" she says to me and I'm getting extremely angry now.

"We still can be. But you still don't seem to get it, I told you not to open your fucking mouth, but you didn't listen and had to just speak up anyway. You didn't help you friend out, you just made it worse for the both of you, like I said you would, so yeah I think you deserved everything you got, besides, you could have gotten much worse." I'm all but shouting at her now.

"Just ignore her Tris, she just wants to suck up to the instructors, to make sure she doesn't get cut." I hear Christina chime in and I see red, I punch her in the face repeatedly until I finally hear the crack of her nose breaking before storming out and to the training room, wanting to take my anger out on something.

As I leave the dorm, I hear people yelling at me, and see Tobias running in, giving me a weird look. But I just ignore him and carry on my way to the training room. Once I'm in there, I am even angrier than before, and plan to take my anger out on a nearby wall when I am stopped Eric, "What do you want Eric?" I shout at him, not liking him being in my way.

"You are angry right?" he asks me, "Then save yourself the hassle of another broken arm and fight me" I look at him for a while, not sure if he is serious. I decide that he is not joking and walk over to the mats, bring my arms up in the defensive stance, and watch as he does the same. We circle each other for a bit, like I did in my match with Tobias, but Eric is the one who throws the first punch, and catches me in the ribs, I send a punch at his face but he easily blocks it. I fake a punch to his face again but he doesn't fall for it and sends a kick to my side. I fall to the fall, slightly winded. I slowly get back up and Eric waits for me to do so.

We send a few more punches at each other, but he manages to block most of mine, and I barely get a hit. I send another hit to his face and land a punch to his eye, he barely notices it but I'm sure he is going to have a black eye. He sends a kick to my stomach and I fall back. But as I fall, I kick at his legs. Not expecting the attack, he loses his balance and falls on top of me.

Our faces are mere inches away, and before I register what is happening, his lips crashes against mine, I'm still for a split second before kissing him back. His hands go to my waist, and I put my arms round his neck, running my hands through his hair. We break apart, both of us breathing heavily from the lack of oxygen. Once we've both got our breaths back, I pull him back to me, our lips crashing into another, equally passionate kiss.

After a few moments, he stands from the mats and helps me up before, almost sauntering off to lunch, a big smirk plastered on his face, and I can't help laugh slightly as I watch him walk out the room. I shake my head and make my way back to the dorm, thinking I should probably apologize to Tris and I suppose Christina as well. This initiation, is about to get a whole lot tougher, once stage one finishes in a couple days, and the less people angry with me the better, there are already some shady people in our transfer group.

When I enter the dorm, I see Tris and Christina talking together, with Will and Al. as I approach them, Al notices me first "You here to break someone else's nose?" he asks me, this catches the attention of the girls, Christina glaring daggers at me, but I ignore her, and Al's comment, "Look, I'm not here to start anything, okay, I just want to apologise for overreacting slightly," I tell them both, but I'm only looking at Tris, I don't really care for the Candor. "I'm not saying you were right, because you weren't, but the less people on our wrong side the better, people are going to get more desperate after the first cuts. So what do you say we put this behind us, and try to get along? Yeah?" I continue. I can see Tris thinking over what I've said in her head, she knows I'm right. Not just about the thing with the knives, but also that people are going to get desperate. After a few moments TRIS accepts my offer and so does Christina, albeit rather begrudgingly. I smile at the girls before making my way to my bed, happy that issue has been resolved.

After changing my clothes, I see Peter and his three cronies, Molly, Drew and Brent, he seem to be reading a piece of paper. "Hey stiffs, you're going to want to hear this," he was addressing both me and Tris but I act like I'm not listening, it can't be good. "Listen, the recent transfers of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, children of Andrew Prior, call into question the soundness of Abnegation's teachings and values. What prompted them to leave? Perhaps the answer lies in the corrupted ideals of an entire faction. The theft of resources, the general incompetence. Or was the abuse of their children, after all, Marcus Eaton has already been accused of beating his son and it is known his second child transferred this year as well." Peter continues. I look at Tris, she is absolutely fuming with hurt and anger, and I don't blame her, her parents are innocent, some of the nicest people I've ever known. "They didn't beat anyone. They are good people" she shouts at Peter, but then she turns to me and I fill with dread. I know what she is going to say but for some reason I can't move, I'm frozen to the spot. "Why aren't you defending your father, did you hear what they are accusing him of?" I can't say anything, I can't defend him, and not with everything he did to me and Tobias. Everybody is looking at me now and I know they all know. I hear someone laugh, its Brent, "So is it true, did your daddy beat you?"

At this I run out the room, I can't stand being in there anymore, so many pitiful faces. I run as fast as I can, tears streaming down my face. I'm not looking where I'm going and I turn a corner sharply, and slam into somebody, "Get out of my way!" I scream at the poor person, who really didn't deserve to be shouted at. I roughly push past the people in my way, and barely hear someone call my name. But I don't stop, I know it is Eric, but I keep on going, I need to get away from everyone. I turn down another hallway, this one is empty. "Parker!" Eric shouts, I'm not surprised he managed to keep up. I turn round this time, "Just leave me alone!" I all but scream at him. He easily catches up to me, but I refuse to look at him. "Parker, what's wrong?" He asks me, but I can't answer, my breathing starting to become erratic. "They know" I manage to get out.

"Who knows what, Parker?" he asks me clearly confused.

"Th-the others, the-they kn-now about Marcus. Erudite. Article." I try to explain, but I can't get the words out.

"Hey, it's gonna be okay, who cares what they think anyway, you're better than them" he tells me, sympathetically.

"It's, it's not that" I continue "It's Tobias, he's going to hate me, he's worked hard to keep it a secret for the past four years and I'm here barely a month and I've gone and fucked it all up"

"Your brother is not going to hate you" Eric tells me but I don't listen, I just shake my head, still looking at the ground. "I mean it, Parker." He tilts my chin, forcing me to look at him, "those articles were going to come, no matter which faction you had gone to. Ok?" he asks me sternly but he's not angry. I don't say anything, I just nod. He closes the short distance between us, his soft lips on mine. It was a long, slow kiss. Not rough like our previous kiss, but just as passionate. We break apart, his hand still on my jaw. I lean forward, resting my head against his chest, my eyes closed revelling in being so close to him, the smell of his cologne, consuming all my senses.

After a few minutes, we break apart and Eric looks down briefly at his watch, "I've got a few things I need to discuss with your brother about the next part of training, in the training room, so how about I walk back with you to your dorm?" he asks me. But clearly sensing my hesitation offers another suggestion. "I suppose I could always talk to your brother after training has finished for the day, and let you talk to him for the next half hour before the fights." He doesn't wait for a response before walking back the way we came. I have to jog slightly to keep up.

 **Thank you to VampireAngel99 for answering my question, it really helped. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, any feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated, i'm very new at this and cant help thinking i getting it wrong, so thank you to everyone who continues to read and review. thank you. And remember if i get two more reviews by new years i will update as soon as the final review has arrived.**

 **~depressedintorvert~**


	16. Chapter 16

Parker's POV

I catch up to Eric and we walk the rest of the way to the training room in a comfortable silence. Luckily I don't see any of the other initiates, which makes sense as they are probably in the mess hall eating their lunch. I talk to my brother for a good half an hour before Eric returns to organise the fights for this afternoon. Tobias goes over to help him and the room is a blissful silence, but not for long as the first of the initiates come through the doors, as soon as they see me most of them start whispering, and I know they are talking about me, I won't let them see it affect me so I continue looking at them, I am kind of glad I do when I see Tris, Edward and Myra not talking about me, and I smile slightly in thanks. The same can't be said for Peter and his cronies, who start giving their opinions with raised voices, but ignore them, hopefully they won't make it through initiation.

Thankfully, Eric and Tobias start talking, forcing them to shut up. "This afternoon the last of the fights are going to commence, this is your last chance to change your rank, and may make the difference between being cut or making it through to stage two, so you need to fight your hardest." Tobias tells them, but I know that these fights are going to make very little difference the lowest ranking initiates are just too low, there isn't any way they are going to make the cut, and looking at the others, they seem to think the same. Eric turns the board round, and I read through the list of names:

Edward – Peter

Brent – Molly

Tris – Will

Drew – Al

Myra – Christina

Clearly Eric and Tobias thought the same, these fights were going to make very little difference, and they seemed to pair the fights to order final ranks, especially with the fight between Edward and Peter, the two were the best initiates, so the fight must be to decide who ranks first and second. I was glad I wasn't fighting, but it meant I had no idea what rank I was at, and it also meant I had no way to change my rank, and that was worrying. The fights dragged on for quite a bit, which meant everyone was fairly evenly matched, well everyone except for Myra and Al their fights went far too quickly to be good, and both ended up in the infirmary. Edward won the fight against Peter, which I was happy about. The fight between Molly and Brent and resulted, in Molly winning, which I wasn't happy about but it is better than Brent winning. Sadly, Tris lost against Will but I think she is high enough not to get cut.

Once the fights finish, we are free to go to dinner. As the others file out of room, I wait behind to talk to Tobias and Eric. The door swings shut as the last person leaves and I approach the two instructors, "How come I didn't fight?" I ask them.

"There's an odd number of you, one of you has to sit out." Tobias tells me, like I'm stupid.

"Yes thank you for that insightful piece of information, I can count. But you're not answering my question, you could have made anybody else sit out, why not somebody who clearly isn't going to get cut." I tell him, starting to get annoyed.

"Because, as you just mentioned we all know who is going to cut tomorrow, but we also know the exact rankings, we knew them before the fights started, the final fights are just procedure. Besides you are not in the best state of mind," Eric says returning for storing the mats away. I go to interrupt him, but he doesn't let me finish. "No, let me finish, you were no fit state to fight, and that is fact, so why make you fight when you didn't need to." He finishes. "Now I'm hungry, so I'm going to have some dinner before all the food goes." And at this Eric leaves me and Tobias alone. I wait for him to finish before walking with him to the mess hall. "You are going to be okay you know" Tobias says somewhat out of the blue. I look at him confused, unsure of what he's talking about. "About people knowing about Marcus, the people who matter won't care" he clarifies. I nod and give him a brief hug, before making my way to the food, and sitting at our usual table, next to Eric and across from Tobias, and part of me agrees with him, one day it will be alright.

 **I'm back, sorry it has been so long, school has just ramped up big time, i have my GCSEs in a few months and I've missed so much school, so catch-up and revision has taken up a lot of my time and I havent been feeling the best in reagrds to mental health, but i think things are on the up. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter and i hope you are still interested, I've got a couple more chapters already written and have plans for far future chapters.**

 **~depressedintrovert~**


	17. I'M BACK - Important Authors Note

Hi there, dont know if anybody still reads these stories but i just wanted to let you know i am going to start writing again. i have two updates.

First: Silent Fury is going to be restarted as i kinda lost where i was going with it. the first chapters may look similar but most if not all (i havent decided yet) character names will be changed and i hope to actually complete it. Also i dont like the name.

Second: I dont know whether to continue The Other Eaton, as some aspects of that will be similar to this new story. And so i might just combine aspects of it into the new story. If anybody has preferences either way let me know

~depressedintrovert


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